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Justin Amash One of the youngest U.S. Representatives and Chairman of the House Liberty Caucus, Justin Amash is among the most independent members of the House GOP and strives to distance himself from party groupthink. The New York Times noted in 2011 that Amash, “has not voted with the majority 25 percent of the time, the most of any House Republican.” He was recently criticized by GOP strategist Karl Rove, asserting Amash's “staunch libertarian stances on legislation as antithetical to tackl

It seems the controversial CSCOPE lesson plans may survive after all. After being seemingly dismantled by conservatives in May due to allegations of an anti-American and pro-Islamic bias, along with the lesson plans being simply inefficient, a Wednesday meeting had an attorney of the Texas State Board of Education reveal that due to the lesson plans of CSCOPE being classified as public domain, there is absolutely nothing stopping school districts from using them. A Friday meeting, which was me

What Are You Paying For With Your Tax Dollars? In early July, it was reported that the Pentagon had spent $34-million on an unused military base in Afghanistan.  It was originally supposed to be used as its headquarters.  But as the US now starts to withdraw troops, the building may soon be demolished without ever being used.  It has come to show how bloated the Pentagon's budget really is and how much money they tend to waste.  But that's not where it stops.  The government wastes money in eve

Since whistleblower Edward Snowden released shocking revelations about a far-reaching national surveillance program, the issue of “Big Brother,” and exactly whom he is watching, has become a topic of intense debate. It would make sense, given the high-profile nature of this controversy, that New Jersey’s varied Senate hopefuls would express their personal views regarding the NSA’s surveillance of American citizens. Thus far, it is Republican frontrunner Steve Lonegan, the hyper-conservative for

On Thursday, Governor Rick Perry signed the controversial HB2 into law, which sets widespread restrictions on abortion. The signing occurred at the Capitol auditorium with supporters gathering inside alongside the Governor, while protestors of the bill chanted outside. The bill's signing comes weeks after a 13 hour filibuster by Democratic Senator Wendy Davis that killed the bill in the first special session. However, while Senator Davis may have won that battle, the bill would still pass, the

Earlier this week I wrote about the misinformation, and misleading by various law enforcement, media, and bloggers about the Zimmerman Verdict Protesters.  We saw it in LA, with false claims from the LAPD and NBC, claiming $15k in damage to the Hollywood W Hotel. We saw this in the right wing blogosphere false reporting of two white men killed by a group of black men over a "Free Zimmerman" bumper sticker THAT DID NOT EXIST; it was a drug deal gone bad, where two white men were  killed by anoth

Rule number one in effective communication is to establish the relevancy of the topic to the audience. Why should they care? How does it affect their quality of life? Truthful accounting might do just that. For one measure of the states’ quality of life, we turn to the recent work done by Ballotpedia, a “collaborative encyclopedia designed to connect people to politics.” The site focuses on providing a comprehensive and non-partisan analysis of numerous candidates and political efforts. The Lu

Credit: Calin Tatu / Shutterstock.com Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, is the process of injecting fluids under high pressure to crack underground rocks and release oil or gas. With the introduction of technologies such as this, oil reserves that have historically been too difficult to extract have become viable extraction sites. Natural gas is referred to as the “bridge fuel” from gas and oil energy to renewable sources. It is responsible for nearly 40 percent of electr

Well, the filibuster is apparently safe for now.  The most recent “nuclear option” showdown ended exactly the way that Harry Reid undoubtedly wanted it to. Reid, who is perfectly aware that he may be in the minority next year, didn’t really want to change the rules. But the nuclear scare was a good way to force debate on several controversial administration nominations, and that was enough. Rarely has the hypocrisy of both major parties been displayed more clearly than it was this week. The De

tlegend / shutterstock.com With the NSA stockpiling browser data and advertising agencies targeting specific potential customers, there seems to be no end to what can be done with the massive amount of information available at the click of a mouse. Another application of the data available to "them" has been made clear over the past month in the case of Chevron and Ecuador. After a decade of litigation against the oil giant involving an $18.2 billion accusation of "massive environmental conta